i'm not sure what is going on with the european version, it would be another AXN program for central europe (roughly Czech republic eastwards). I do know that the Brazilian version is set to start airing on Oct 13th

though I can't read Portuguese so I don't know if this has already finished fliming.

and i agree with Slowhatch, i looked over the Singapore episode, definitely at night, I thought for one moment in the previews that they were in a nightclub with a lot of dry ice - cool lighting effect on that fountain !!!

Andy/Laura 430amAndrew/Syeon around 445am (I wasn't quick enough to catch it, but this is close)Zabrina/JoeJer 458amHoward Sahran 513amSandy/Francesca 622amMardy/Marsio 633amSharon/Melody 640amNote the over one hour gap there between the first 4 teams and the last 3 teams.

However, as always, the bunching moment occurs at the airport as all teams are forced onto the same 800am flight from Auckland to Dunedin. Dunedin is cited as the "2nd city of the South Island." I could not believe that it is larger than Queenstown, but population statistics don't lie and it is almost 100,000 larger than Queenstown, which is much smaller than I remember it to be. I think the producers play a hand in preventing the first few teams from getting on a 715am flight, as everyone is on a 800am flight. Unless it is a very slow prop jet, I have to believe that the flight actually stops en route in Queenstown as the distance factor does not warrant at 2 hour 45 minute flight with the 1045am arrival in Dunedin, but the magic Amazing Race chart shows it as nonstop.

All teams arrive and find marked 4 wheel drive cars to self-drive 5 hours to Queenstown. Once there, they must gas up at a Caltex gas station to get their next clue. The instructions at Dunedin specifically warn to obey local speed limits. Zabrina and Joe Jer admit to going 110 km/hr in a 100 zone, but Andy and Laura are pulled over for doing 146 in that same zone. Andy gets his license confiscated and a NZ$600 fine(I wonder how they had enough money to pay this?). Several other teams pass them whiole they are pulled over. Howard and Sahran comment on coming into the outskirts of Queenstown how spectacularly beautiful it is (they are not exaggerating; I have been there and the entire South Island of New Zealand has scenery to die for).

After the Caltex, the clue offers a Gondola Ride up Bob's Peak, then a DETOUR of Luge or Ledge. In Luge, teams may do a relay race up a chairlift then down a 430 meter summer luge course. It is clearly the option for those too scared to do Ledge. Ledge is a Bungy Swing from 400 meters above the surrounding landscape, swinging on a long tether but with a safety harness. The G forces on the drop are severe. It is the option for those who want to finish fast. The first 4 teams after this detour all choose Bungy Swing and finish in this order:Mardy/MarsioAndy/LauraSandy/FrancescaAndrew/SyeonSahran states his characteristic "I can't do this(the bungy swing)", so they go to Luge. The time to go up the chairlift for 8 cycles(4 for each teammate) adds up to putting all these teams behind:Zabrina/JoeJerHoward/SahranSharon/Melody

The next task is to drive to Arrowtown and find the clue box. This remixes the order of teams to a new one, but the next clue sends all teams to Off Road Adventures of Quad Bikes. when they get there, the Hours of Operation force them to return the next morning when they will be bunched. The teams agree to start in the order they got to Off Road Adventures initially, but several do not trust Andy/Laura to play by those rules, which is verbalized by Marsio.

The Off Road Adventure is both teammates separately biking through very difficult terrain. Several individuals are stuck in mud and have to be assisted by course personnel to get out. This includes Syeon, Sahran, and Melody. They then go to Nevis Valley Bungy Jump, the 4th highest in the world. They will descend 134 meters down in 8.4 seconds. The order of arrival there proves to be the order of departure (there is no opportunity to change positions unless someone chickens out) and is also the order of arrival at the Chadd Farm Winery pitstop. Only Sharon appeared to be frightened out of her wits by the jump. That order is(first person listed is the bungy jumper):

Andy/Laura were given a 92 minute penalty, 2 minutes for each of the 46 kh/hr over the speed limit. However, it is being enforced on the start of the following leg and not at the finish. Why this was the case is totally beyond my comprehension. They earned the penalty in this leg and it should have been enforced on this leg. If Sharon/Melody finished less than 92 minutes behind Andy/Laura, then Andy/Laura should have been eliminated. As it was presented, Sharon/Melody were eliminated and there was not debate over the enforcement policy. This is the most egregious example of bad in-race decision making by the producers that I have seen in any Amazing Race.

NOTE ADDED LATER - My research shows that the 0800 flight from Auckland goes to Wellington before arriving at Dunedin at 1045.

This stuff probably needs a new thread, but here goes:An Allan Wu sighting (blog w/photo dated 07 Jul 07) in a Singapore restaurant. Since he's based in Singapore it's unremarkable; it's the crew sighting (along with the suntec photos) that makes it interesting.

Quote

We saw Allan Wu at IndoChine ...he was with his angmoh production crew...it's very hot outside when he's doing the filming...he's sweating like hell....me too....

I think (And I might be wrong and) that regular TAR had a couple of penalities enforced ont eh next leg, because the producers were unaware of them occuring until after all teams had check in.

But it is also possible that the team was simply later then the penality time. Unforunately we have no shadow analysis (and I don't recall any being done when it originally aired) to give some form of confirmation ont he time of teams arrival.

If they were that late then there are several cases of the penalities being served in the next episode (hell the 2cd episode of All Stars had that with Kevin & Drew suffering a penality for not attempting to fix their vehicle though it was enver aired and only clips and interviews afterwards informed us of it.

OK, but what relevance does that line of thinking have to ARA1 episode 6, where at the New Zealand South Island pitstop near Queenstown it was clearly known at pitstop checkin that Andy/Laura had a penalty and yet they chose to apply it when it made no sense, at the beginning of the next leg?

I think it is going to be a little tricky keeping TARA2 and TAR 12 spoilers separate this time...

filiming permits wont make it trickey

I agree that it will be tricky knowing whether reports as they come in apply to ARA2 or to AR12. Sicne the Singapore report is about Allan Wu, that makes it easy, but some upcoming ones will probably be much more difficult.

Film permits are only useful for regular Amazing Races in the U.S. for the first and last leg! I have not heard that a technique has been perfected for getting foreign countires to require film permits and permit information to be public. This means that the rest of the regular Amazing Races and Amazing Race Asias will not benefit from the technique.

I think it is going to be a little tricky keeping TARA2 and TAR 12 spoilers separate this time...

filiming permits wont make it trickey

I agree that it will be tricky knowing whether reports as they come in apply to ARA2 or to AR12. Sicne the Singapore report is about Allan Wu, that makes it easy, but some upcoming ones will probably be much more difficult.

Film permits are only useful for regular Amazing Races in the U.S. for the first and last leg! I have not heard that a technique has been perfected for getting foreign countires to require film permits and permit information to be public. This means that the rest of the regular Amazing Races and Amazing Race Asias will not benefit from the technique.

OK, but what relevance does that line of thinking have to ARA1 episode 6, where at the New Zealand South Island pitstop near Queenstown it was clearly known at pitstop checkin that Andy/Laura had a penalty and yet they chose to apply it when it made no sense, at the beginning of the next leg?

Yeah, its confusing and I really, really would like to know when that team arrived last.

And like regular TAR, I assume the producers are in contact all the time with the filming crew, where they absolutely would have plenty of warning about the speeding violation Andy & Laura (well Andy) received.

Again it really only makes sense is if Sharon & Melody were more then 92 minutes later (which it is possible I assume). But strange that they wouldn't milk it for a dramatic ending, unless they have some rule (that I am unaware of about driving penalities being applied at the start of the next leg.

I am thinking of the driving penalties that I can recall, Chris & Alex and Gary & Dave speeding in Season 2, Gretchen & Meredith taking the wrong vehicle in season 6, Kevin & Drew in All Stars. I think all of those penalities were applied to the start of the next leg (Maybe if I am not lazy I will try and confirm more).

If so, perhaps thats a rule (A stupid one in my opinion) that differs from some of the other penalties.

Apskip can you think of any driving violations that have applied to the same leg, before the official check in?

I can think of taking the wrong transportation, taking too many clues, not completeling tasks, ect all being applied on the same leg (especially in later seasons).

OK, what am I missing? I went looking for shadow caps (the kmz is attached if anyone's interested; Chard Farm sits very close to 45 South lat.) but found these departure times more interesting. Subtract 92 minutes from the A/L departure time and it means they would have arrived 8 minutes after H/S, which was clearly not the case.

This time I have done a bit of international flight schedules to provide information that is usually available on the show, but was not provided. I am also going to have more personal comments than usual.

We start at the Chard Farm Winery, where the teams leave the pitstop as follows for teh Queesntown airport:

The penalty for Andy/Laura was supposed to be 92 minutes and they originally finished just after Sandy/Francesca. Regular math puts them no worse than 92 minutes after 315am, but apparently the Amazing Race Asia editors are uses a brand new form of math or ARE NOT TELLING US SOMETHING IMPORTANT, which is much more likely. I hate it when they show such little respect for the audience that this indicates.

Teams are headed for Singapore, but the best route is via Auckland. My analysis of airline flights shows that this is what they almost certainly flew:

Air New Zealand 642 ZQN to AKL departs 1100 arrive 1245Singapore Airlines 286(oh, what a tough break) AKL nonstop to Singapore departs 1400 arrivwe 2035 (Note: besides being the first flight in to Singapore from Auckland each day, that time also corresponds to the dusk dky condition for July 5, 2006 when they arrived at the CALTEX station).

The stop in Singapore was the most criticized set of tasks in the entire history of the Amazing Race. As Sandy put it "all the way to Singapore just to wash a car." Not quite, Sandy. It was also to do product placement for CALTEX and FORD, something that only an infrequent Amazing Race task should be doing. The teams bunch again at Singapore airport and fly to Bangkok. That flight is not on Air Asia as indicated on the show but on Thai Airlines departing at 2205 as shown and arriving 2335 Banngkok time, 2.5 hours later.

Teams grab taxis and rush to a temple 85 km north of Bangkok, many changing from their original taxi once communication problems were too vast. However, Hours of Operation were 0630 to 1900, so all arrived before opening and most slept in the taxis. Zabrina and JoeJer, the first to arrive at 2am, were designated to enter first. This actually became important as the cable car for entry across the river only could tranport 2(plus the camera and soundmen) at a time. Teams received coins with the picture of the golden Mount Temple, back in Bangkok, for their next clue. Once there it was a Roadblock forcing choice of Who Can Ring a Bell to find among 560 dangling bells, out of the 100 containing capsules, one of the 6 containing a clue. They finish in the order: Andy, Syeon, Francesca, Marsio, Sahran, JoeJer. Next is a DETOUR, and this causes chaos not seen except for the "Child on Swing" in Devonport. BACON requries a taxi to Ha Long Latadong to get the clue, then another taxi to the Pig Monument. EGGS is a taxi to the Wholesale Market, difficult to find, and then a 3/4 mile walk with a stack of 20 egg cartons on a dolly to a merchant even more difficult to find. If any eggs are broken they have to be replaced. The chaos of BACON is in getting translation of the word PIG, which turns out to be the phonetic sound "Moo" in Thai. Getting directions from locals to the correct addresses is confusing, even for Andy and Laura, who theoretically have Thailand as their "home country"(and if you believe that I have a bridge to sell you; I must add that even though I dislike them as a team and do not believe their ties to thailand I think they are examples of genius casting by ARA).

Teams get a clue to Wat Pho as the pitstop as they complete the DETOUR. The finish order is:

Andy/Laura win a year's supply of CALTEX gasoline each.Andrew and SyeonHoward and Sahran do a magnificent turnaround and move up to 3rd by finding the PIG Monument quickly.Sandy/FrancescaMardy/MarsioZabrina/Joe Jer are extremely lucky and saved by non-elimination. They lose all their cash but appear like they were expecting this to be non-elim.

OK, what am I missing? I went looking for shadow caps (the kmz is attached if anyone's interested; Chard Farm sits very close to 45 South lat.) but found these departure times more interesting. Subtract 92 minutes from the A/L departure time and it means they would have arrived 8 minutes after H/S, which was clearly not the case.

Slowhatch, I am now in a position to comment. With a 92 minute penalty, the latest that Andy/Laura could have started was 0447am, but more probably 0432am. They appear to have an additional 90 minutes added on to their penalty. That would make it really close between them and Sharon/Melody in the Chard Farm Winery pitstop finish if the 92 minute penalty were assessed at the finish of episode 6. I would love to know why the extra penalty.

Oh thank you mswood! I MAY need to take you up on that but I'm hoping I have a copy in the works. I'm supposed to be getting a DVD made for me but I'm just hoping it arrives soon! And I do intend to learn to use torrents one of these days but there never seems to be enough time.

Yes, and that DVD has been sent out. I'm the one who was copying my entire TAR DVD collection (including TARA) for Peach and just sent it out today.

Peach sent me the link to this forum as she knows I'm a big TAR fan including TARA as you can tell. LOL.

Looking forward to TARA 2 and discussing the first season with you guys.

The clue sends them to the Southern Bus Terminal, where they will catch a bus for Krabi 800 km south. Afficionados of the very first regular Amazing Race will remember that Krabi was the site of the pit stop where the critical time gap opened between Frank/ Margarita and Rob/Brennan and Kevin/Drew which quickly lengthened out to a full day.

Teams arrive long before the first express bus leaves at 7am. However, sometime in the early morning a local bus goes to Prachnop and Andrew/Syeon, Howard/Sahran, and Mardy/Marsio take a risk by taking that bus. That leads to them taking a long chain of buses, the next to Chumphnon, then Masto Mnang Masi. Their driver arranges a special bus to meet then on the way to Phuket and go straight to Krabi insstead of to Krabi via Phuket. That saved them one hour and they get to Krabi at about 730pm instead of 830pm. The express bus with Andy/Laura, Sandy/Francesca and Zabrina/JoeJer had 11 hours and arrived at 6pm. In order to get to the clue, all teams must go to a specific beach by local taxi. M/M had run out of money due to buying new lighter backpacks, so 100 Baht from Andrew and Syeon allowed them to continue.

If you can't have an airport bunching, what's the next best thing? An hours of operation bunching. When all 6 teams arrived at Hat Phi Phi National Marine Park on the beach at Hat Nopharrat Thara Bay, the hours of operation posted was 8am to 6pm. All teams had to find shelter for the night and M/M went begging and attempting to sell clothing.

The next morning's access to the clue box invited teams to go for the second Fast Forward. No team seemed interested in risking what happened to Ernie/Jeena in leg 2. All went to Kapota and had a DETOUR choice of SMASH or GRAB. SMASH was to use small hammers to open any of 75 coconuts up to reveal red dye inside one. GRAB was to swim to one of 100 buoys with clues; only 10 had real clues. As they were travelling in sight of the other boats, Mardy/Marsio could see that none were going for the Fast Forward. They decided on the spot to change course and go to Panang Bay to do the Fast Forward. It involved paddling a kayak along a series of coves until they found the clue hidden along one of them. They had never kayaked before and elected to have one do the paddling and the other the balancing. That technique worked and they eventually found the clue, which sent them directly to the pitstop at Ko Pak Bia.

Andrew/Syeon was the only team to start on GRAB and they found it quickly. This inspired several of the other teams to switch, as smashing coconuts proved difficult unless your name was Sandy. He and Francesca were the only ones to complete SMASH. He completed it after Andy/Laura had switched and completed GRAB, putting S/F in fourth place. That left Zabrina/JoeJer and Howard/Sahran to fight it out. H/S siwtched to GRAB slightly sooner, but Z/JJ completed it first and was on their way in 5th place. Next for all teams but M/M was the ROCK CLIMB with a professional anchoring the safety line and giving advice. The clue was maybe 20 yards up the rock wall. It did not appear to be that difficult. Even Sahran, who complained "oh my God" and "I can't do that" was able to complete it fairly quickly. Teams left this task in the exact order they arrived the same happened at Teah Hong Lagoon, which was only a "get a clue" station to send teams on to the pitstop. On the final approach to the pitstop, Andrwe/Syeon lost 2nd place when their boat captain took them to thet wrong island and Andy/Laura and Sandy/Francesca slipped ahead of them. Zabrina/Joe Jer made a joke about not having to give up their money this time as they finished. Howard/Sahran were last and eliminated. They complained that they were not ready to be out of the Amazing Race. Imagine how Rob and Amber felt!